


Simple Tasks

by camwolfe



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 06:21:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3718363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camwolfe/pseuds/camwolfe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Steve's first day at his new office job. He's pretty terrible at it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Simple Tasks

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the AU prompt: "“i’ve been working for here for about two minutes i have no idea what i’m doing you’ve been here for years please help” au" which I found [here](http://padfootdidit.tumblr.com/post/115251344946/business-aus). Me and [Lauren](http://castiowl.tumblr.com) are doing a series of lil steve/bucky AU fics, and this is the first one I've actually gotten around to doing! 
> 
> Also, look! No angst! Amazing.

It was a simple enough request.

Steve’s new boss had asked him to scan a stack of forms and put them on a flash drive. She'd described it as “an easy task for your first morning.”

So here Steve was, staring at the giant paper copier/scanner/printer/life-destroyer sitting in front of him.

He tentatively poked at one of the buttons on the machine. It whirred to life with a series of loud beeps, making Steve jump. He glanced around hastily, but no one in the busy office was paying attention to him.

He awkwardly tried to put one of the forms into a slot in the side of the machine. It didn’t work, and Steve felt his face starting to turn red with embarrassment.

Someone snickered behind him. Steve turned around to see an unfairly attractive guy standing behind him, holding a coffee and _definitely_ laughing at Steve.

“Let me guess,” Steve said weakly. “I'm doing this wrong."

The guy laughed. “Yep. Here, hold my coffee.”

Steve took the coffee with his free hand, and watched in amazement as the guy grabbed the entire top of the machine and tilted it back. He pointed to the transparent surface underneath.

“That’s the scanner,” he said. He reached out and took the coffee back from Steve.

“Thank you,” Steve said, relief colouring his voice. “Thank you so much.”

“No problem,” the guy said, still clearly amused. He held his hand out. “Bucky Barnes.”

“Steve Rogers,” Steve said. He reached out to shake Bucky’s hand, and managed to drop the entire stack of forms onto the floor.

Bucky started laughing again. Steve groaned and frantically tried to scoop them all back into his arms, waving Bucky off as he knelt to help.

“I’m fine,” he said hurriedly. “Thank you for your help.”

“Alright,” Bucky replied still grinning. “Good luck.”

Steve stood up again, just in time to see Bucky disappear into one of the offices lining the hallway. Steve’s eyes widened as he took in the placard on the doorway. The one that clearly said “Bucky Barnes, Vice President” in gold letters.

Steve groaned again.

 

He made it through the rest of the morning relatively unscathed. A woman down the hallway roped him into helping her move offices, and he relaxed a little as he carried box after box through the building. Manual labour came easy to him. Scanning forms? Not so much.

He escaped to the nearest fast food joint for lunch, and his heart sank when he made it back to his cubicle after lunch. There was a new stack of forms on the desk, although this time they were labeled with a post-it note saying “SHRED THESE.”

Steve hauled the pile of paper over to the paper shredder against one wall. It just so happened to be next to Bucky’s office. Steve could see him inside, staring at his computer screen with a frown on his face.

Steve shook his head and turned away. He needed to focus. He couldn’t waste time thinking about how nice Bucky’s hair was.

He carefully read all the instructions on the paper shredder. It claimed to be able to handle up to eight pieces of paper at once, including staples.

Steve, being the careful and anxious person that he was, gently fed three pieces of paper to the shredder. It destroyed them all with vicious glee.

After a few painfully boring minutes, Steve decided to up the number to four pieces of paper at a time. He placed it into the slot, and then froze as the shredder screeched. It rattled around for a moment, and then stopped working completely.

A burning-electrical smell reached Steve’s nose, and he stared in horror at the mangled pieces of paper sticking out of the top of the shredder.

He tugged at the pages frantically, trying to dislodge them from the shredder, but they were stuck.

Steve tried everything. He turned the shredder off and opened it up and tried to fix it that way. No luck. He tried pushing the paper in deeper. Nothing.

Finally, Steve stood up. The woman he’d helped this morning was gone, and he didn’t know anyone else here other than Bucky.

Steve sighed deeply and walked over to Bucky’s door.

He knocked gently, feeling his face already starting to turn red. 

“Yeah?” Bucky called. Steve opened the door, wincing as Bucky spun in his chair to face him.

“Oh, hi Steve,” Bucky said with a friendly smile.

“Hi,” Steve said weakly. “Umm…”

“Need help with the scanner again?” Bucky asked politely. There were pieces of paper spread out all over his desk and emails open on his computer. He was probably too busy to help Steve with this, but it was too late now.

“No,” Steve said awkwardly. “I, uh, I think I broke the paper shredder.”

Bucky laughed. “There’s no way. That thing’s industrial.”

Steve stared at him helplessly.

Bucky snickered and got to his feet, waving Steve out the door in front of him. “Okay, fine, let me take a look at it.”

A few minutes later, Bucky was kneeling in front of the paper shredder with wonder in his eyes.

“Holy shit,” he said reverently. “You really did break it.”

Steve groaned and covered his face with his hands.

By then, a crowd has formed around them.

“What,” a cold voice said slowly, “is going on?”

Steve lowered his hands to see his new boss standing in front of him, her arms crossed and a frown on her face.

“The new paper shredder is completely fucked,” Bucky said joyfully. Steve sighed.

Maria Hill frowned again. “No, there’s no way. We just bought that.”

Bucky held up the top portion of the machine for her to see.

Hill sighed deeply. “Fine. Someone get Sharon to order a new one. In the meantime, who broke this?”

Steve winced and opened his mouth to reply.

“Me,” Bucky said easily.

Steve frowned and shot him a glance, but Bucky was smiling winningly at Hill.

Hill just rolled her eyes and walked away.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Steve said desperately.

Bucky shook his head and climbed back to his feet. “It’s fine. It’s just a paper shredder.”

“But it probably cost a lot of money – “

“The company can afford it,” Bucky said drily. “Don’t worry about it.”

Steve watched him make his way back into his office, then turned his horrified gaze back to the mangled shredder. Today was simultaneously, somehow, the worst and the best day he’d ever head.

 

He made it through the rest of the day, and was at the office by eight the next morning. He was determined not to fuck up again that day.

“Good morning!” he said brightly when Bucky walked by him. Bucky looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes and a thick folder of papers under his arm.

“Morning,” Bucky replied, smiling at Steve for a moment before ducking into his office again. Steve’s heart sank at the change in Bucky’s demeanor.

The reason for this change became apparent a few minutes later, when a large man dressed in a suit came storming through the office. A few people had to leap out of his way as he walked.

The man was scowling, clearly furious about something. He pushed past Steve to get into the board room, slamming his briefcase and coffee down on the table.

“You,” the man snapped, pointing at Steve. “Get them in here.”

Steve stared. “Who?”

“Stop yelling at my employees,” Bucky said from behind Steve. He walked into the room, his arms crossed. Hill was right behind him.

“I’ll stop yelling at your employees when you give me my damn money!” the guy yelled. Bucky patiently sat down across the table from him, Hill taking the seat beside him.

“We don’t owe you anything,” Bucky said sharply. “You stole money from us, not the other way around.”

The man’s face turned an interesting shade of purple. “You fucking bastard.”

Steve set his stack of papers down on top of the printer and started moving towards the board room. He was just in time to see the guy throw his coffee at Hill, and then leap over the table at Bucky. Steve grabbed the back of his collar just as the guy got in one good punch to Bucky’s face.

Steve wrenched him off the top of the table and slammed him up against the wall, pinning the man’s arms behind him.

“You okay?” Steve called over his shoulder to Bucky, ignoring the man’s attempts to wiggle out of Steve’s grasp.

Bucky’s lip was split, but he was staring at Steve with wide eyes. “Fine.”

“Rogers,” Hill said slowly. Steve twisted to look at her. “How would you feel about a transfer to the security department?”

 

Steve left the building at the end of the day with his new uniform under his arm. He was a little baffled at the turn his day had taken, and he didn’t hear someone calling his name until he was halfway down the street.

“Steve!”

Steve turned around to see Bucky jogging up behind him.

“Jesus, you walk fast,” Bucky panted, bracing his hands on his knees.

“Sorry,” Steve said automatically. Bucky waved his hand at him.

“So,” Bucky said when he caught his breath. “You’re in security now, huh?”

“Guess so.”

Bucky grinned at him. “You know what that means?”

Steve stared. “That I work in the security department now?”

Bucky laughed. “Well, yes, but it also means that you don’t work directly for me anymore.”

“Uh,” Steve said. “Okay?”

“This went a lot more smoothly when I imagined it,” Bucky said thoughtfully.

Steve decided to just be truthful. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

Bucky laughed again. “Do you wanna go out with me?”

Steve blinked.

Bucky’s face fell slightly. “I mean, you don’t have to, of course. I won’t be offended or anything – “

“You want to go on a date with me?” Steve interrupted.

“Well, yeah.”

Steve stared at him. “But… you’re the vice president of the company.”

It was Bucky’s turn to stare. “Yeah? So?”

“And you want to go out with me?”

“Yes?”

“Why?”

“Uh,” Bucky said. “Because I like you? You’re hot and you’re funny and you also saved me from getting beat up this morning.”

Steve felt his face starting to turn red again. “Really?”

“Yes,” Bucky said, with a little more confidence. “So? Is it a yes or is it a no? No pressure either way but – “

Yes,” Steve said hastily. “It’s a yes.”

Bucky started to smile again. “Okay! Okay, great! Uh, wanna do lunch tomorrow? We can go to that new Italian place at the end of the block?”

“Sounds good,” Steve said, a stupid silly grin starting to spread across his face.

“Okay, well, I’ve got to go and catch my train,” Bucky said, glancing at his watch. “But I’ll meet you at the front doors at noon tomorrow?”

“Okay,” Steve said. Bucky grinned and him and dashed off, disappearing into the crowd of business people all heading home.

Steve stared at after him, shaking his head slightly. For once in his life, everything was actually working out for the best.

**Author's Note:**

> #tbt to when I worked in an office and managed to not only break the industrial paper shredder (no hot guys came to my aid, tragically), but also to accidentally chop off a significant amount of my hair onto the board room table. what a time
> 
> also, I haven't slept in days so if there are any errors in this please forgive me. let me know what you thought! 
> 
> I'm on tumblr [here](http://cameronwolfe.tumblr.com)! follow for more stories of me being completely incompetent.
> 
> EDIT: Here's the hair chopping story! Basically, one morning I was given these giant sheets of paper that needed cutting and folding and filing. The only place big enough to do this was in the boardroom, and there was a few hours before there'd be another meeting in there. So I spread all this paper out, and was leaning over the table cutting these giant pages in half. I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing, because, well, I'm me, and then I felt this little tug on my hair. So I look down and see that I've cut off about three inches off of part of my hair, and now it's ALL OVER THE TABLE AND THE PAPERS. And thEN MY BOSS WALKS IN AND ASKS ME HOW IT'S GOING AND I HAVE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THE TABLE AND SMILE AND SAY IT'S FINE WHILE MY POOR HAIR IS STREWN ALL OVER THE NICE BOARDROOM TABLE AND FLOOR. So after he left I quickly cleaned it all up, but then I panicked and just threw it into the recycling bin with the rest of the paper??? @ the person at the recycling center who probably found strands of my hair mixed in with the paper: I am so sorry


End file.
